We introduce a reducibility preordering between classes of countable structures, each class containing only structures of a given similarity type (which is allowed to vary from class to class). Though we sometimes work in a slightly larger context, we are principally concerned with the case where each class is an invariant Borel class (i.e. the class of all models, with underlying set $= \omega$, of an $L_{\omega_1\omega}$ sentence; from this point of view, the reducibility can be thought of as a (...) (rather weak) sort of $L_{\omega_1\omega}$-interpretability notion). We prove a number of general results about this notion, but our main thrust is to situate various mathematically natural classes with respect to the preordering, most notably classes of algebraic structures such as groups and fields. (shrink)

The spectrum of a relation on a computable structure is the set of Turing degrees of the image of R under all isomorphisms between and any other computable structure . The relation is intrinsically computably enumerable if its image under all such isomorphisms is c.e. We prove that any computable partially ordered set is isomorphic to the spectrum of an intrinsically c.e. relation on a computable structure. Moreover, the isomorphism can be constructed in such a way that the image of (...) the minimum element of the partially ordered set is computable. This solves the spectrum problem. The theorem and modifications of its proof produce computably categorical structures whose expansions by finite number of constants are not computably categorical and, indeed, ones whose expansions can have any finite number of computable isomorphism types. They also provide examples of computably categorical structures that remain computably categorical under expansions by constants but have no Scott family. (shrink)

Using the theory of Borel equivalence relations we analyze the isomorphism relation on the countable models of a theory and develop a framework for measuring the complexity of possible complete invariants for isomorphism.

§1. I will start with a quick definition of descriptive set theory: It is the study of the structure of definable sets and functions in separable completely metrizable spaces. Such spaces are usually called Polish spaces. Typical examples are ℝn, ℂn, Hilbert space and more generally all separable Banach spaces, the Cantor space 2ℕ, the Baire space ℕℕ, the infinite symmetric group S∞, the unitary group, the group of measure preserving transformations of the unit interval, etc.In this theory sets are (...) classified in hierarchies according to the complexity of their definitions and the structure of sets in each level of these hierarchies is systematically analyzed. In the beginning we have the Borel sets in Polish spaces, obtained by starting with the open sets and closing under the operations of complementation and countable unions, and the corresponding Borel hierarchy. After this come the projective sets, obtained by starting with the Borel sets and closing under the operations of complementation and projection, and the corresponding projective hierarchy.There are also transfinite extensions of the projective hierarchy and even much more complex definable sets studied in descriptive set theory, but I will restrict myself here to Borel and projective sets, in fact just those at the first level of the projective hierarchy, i.e., the Borel (), analytic () and coanalytic () sets. (shrink)

We construct a recursive model , a recursive subset R of its domain, and a Turing degree x 0 satisfying the following condition. The nonrecursive images of R under all isomorphisms from to other recursive models are of Turing degree x and cannot be recursively enumerable.